In a new state-of-the-art laboratory, MCB's Phillip Cleves @pcleves.bsky.social and his team are discovering how the symbiotic relationship between algae and corals evolved. news.berkeley.edu/2026/07/01/s...

So excited to announce our search for 4 postdocs (funded by the Simons Foundation) who will use genomics to "test how ecological interactions, natural selection, natural enemies, hybridization & environmental gradients shape...tropical tree communities" in Panama: stri.si.edu/story/bci-ev... ...1

Our work on the symbiont-containing organelle that supports coral reefs is published today. Also, new genetic tools to study symbiosis in both corals and Aiptasia. Great work by Shumpei Maruyama, Cat Henderson, and the rest of the fantastic team. #SymbioSky www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

A step forward in discovering Buchnera's key to the aphid's heart, published today! Thanks to Jerry Maeda and other authors--a great team -- and to the helpful reviewers #SymbioSky doi: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

I'm hiring! I have 2 open positions: 🔬 Postdoc 🧪 Research associate We study how animal multicellularity evolved by exploring the molecular logic of cell adhesion using cell biology, 'omics, and tool-building in non-model organisms. Come join us! Details and application links 👇 Please repost

Pleased to announce two new publications, in Current Biology and PNAS, from outstanding postdoc Delai (Dylan) Huang, just a week before he leaves to start his new faculty position at Zhejiang University.

Even more excited — our paper is featured on the cover of Science Advances! Huge thanks to @alexandrejan.bsky.social who took this incredible photo of a ctenophore (aka comb jelly) and the editors. Here’s the cover 👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

To increase the use of gene editing in corals, we have made a comprehensive methods paper describing the protocol. We hope this helps the field of functional genetics in corals. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🦋✂️🧬 🧪 New preprint! Led by @donyaniyaz.bsky.social CRISPR‑Cas9 knockouts of ABCG transporters across butterflies & moths reveal how pigment pathways shape color during development. #CRISPR #Lepidoptera #pigmentation Feedback welcome 👩‍🔬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It is happening again! Consider taking our course on the Molecular and Cell Biology of Symbiosis at @mblscience.bsky.social. Application deadline March 4th! www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

Registration is OPEN for the 2026 Santa Cruz Meeting on Developmental Biology!!! Please spread the word! @mads100tist.bsky.social @socdevbio.bsky.social @bsdb.bsky.social @xenbase.bsky.social @isdb.bsky.social @devbiol.bsky.social @the-node.bsky.social scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

New preprint from our big collaborative evolution experiment in 9 whole lakes in Alaska, written by McGill grad student @lucaseckert.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... What happens if you put a mixture of multiple source populations together to complete & evolve in multiple new lakes?

New #GENETICS report from @pcleves.bsky.social et al. shows the use of a simple electroporation protocol to introduce various genetic constructs into Aiptasia zygotes, a small sea anemone and an emerging model to study coral biology. buff.ly/5aQpQ1S

The 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting website is LIVE!!! Go see the incredible list of scientists who will be speaking at the meeting next summer! (...and check the site early next year for info on registration and abstract submission.) scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

Beautiful work. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper from the lab. Molecular characterization of the symbiont-containing organelle with proteomics and reverse genetics in Aiptasia and coral.

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do microbes become permanent partners? 🌊🔬🦠 Check out our new study published in Current Biology showing how cyanobacterial genomes evolve step-by-step into endosymbionts of diatoms. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @currentbiology.bsky.social @mehrshmali.bsky.social

Before today, I would have never known it was possible to run DNA extractions and PCR without a lab. Who knew that a molecular bio bento box could facilitate bringing the lab into the field? I’m very excited to see how our hornwort Cyanobacteria community sequencing turns out later this week.

We're Hiring! Assistant Professor of Immunology and Molecular Medicine in MCB. Learn more and apply online: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05096

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

A paper in Nature reports the discovery of fossilized claw prints thought to belong to an amniote on a slab of rock from Australia dated to about 356 million years ago, suggesting that the origin of amniotes is earlier than expected. go.nature.com/4jm5XTP #Paleosky 🧪

It is happening again! Consider taking our course on the Molecular and Cell Biology of Symbiosis at @MBLScience. We extended the deadline for applications to Apr 14, 2025. www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

It’s live! Check out the Cleves Lab website and learn how the lab uses ecologically relevant cnidarian models to gain key insights into how microbial symbiosis and its breakdown impact animal biology and health, driving new coral conservation efforts. 🪸🎉 @pcleves.bsky.social www.cleveslab.org

Save the date 📅: The PhD Summer School on Host-microbe Symbioses is taking place from 6-19 of July in Oeiras, Portugal. Registration is opening soon! Learn more 👉 gimm.idloom.events/phd-summer-s... @gimmfoundation.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social @crc1182.bsky.social #CIFAR #CBR

Neural crest of Xenopus embryos labelled with nuclear GFP

Lets put this back in the feed and see if there is anyone else who who'd like to be added. We are getting your future grad students ready, and plan on writing a book one day…maybe. go.bsky.app/RnHK313

A video we made at @mbarinews.bsky.social explaining some functions of #fluorescence in the ocean, and how #bioluminescence is different… but related. 🦑🧪🌊 m.youtube.com/watch?v=whbe...

I'm pumped to finally share our lab's first publication! Microbiology and cancer are deeply intertwined, and this is our first foray into the cancer field. We asked: how do bacteria activate innate immunity in tumors to elicit anti-cancer responses? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thrilled to present our latest BioRXiv on brain/body interactions during defensive freezing behaviour! (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...). You might think that a frozen animal has, well, frozen muscle activity, right? Wrong! Underneath the still surface of a fly, something in the legs is beating… 🧵

Last week I showed to MSc students this iconic movie of a #leukocyte chasing a #bacteria, just wait... Version taken from a 16 mm video made by David Elliot Rogers @VanderbiltU in the 1950s ! (as @mag2art.bsky.social says "the Citizen Kane of #Microscopy) #CellMigration @focalplane.bsky.social

🔺🔺🔺RED TRIANGLE ALERT 🔺🔺🔺 Ever wonder how #TADs compare across the tree of life?Look no further & read our Review!!! Find out what genes & 3D chromatin can & can't do in Bacteria! Archeae! Yeast! Plants! Animals! SMCs & RNA-Pol are the only thing they have in common www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com/articles/s41... #protistsonsky

I still love this figure. Submitting revisions this week. SNPs in transcription factor binding sites (green) explain the majority of additive genetic variation for >70% of ~150 phenotypes (rows) in maize. See Alt for detailed figure legend. See www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... for more!

Join us at the Symbiosis course! With @pcleves.bsky.social @scottnichols.bsky.social & others!

Want to be amazed by how a symbiont can be located at the center of a cell while still being an epibiont! Please read and be amazed by the symbiosis between Anaerameoba and sulfate-reducing bacteria! Now out in Nature Communications (open access)! rdcu.be/dZGNe (1/11)

New preprint up! We sequenced hundreds of samples from across one of Earth's oldest living organisms - the Pando aspen clone - to understand how mutations accumulate and spread in long-lived clonal organisms. Our results were…surprising. 1/30

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